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Dates for Public Input Meetings on Morristown Office Site

posted Oct 11, 2013, 12:30 PM by Staff News & Citizen

by Andrew Martin

The time and place of two meetings at which residents of Morristown will have the opportunity to voice their opinions on the future of the town offices have been set. The meetings will occur on Wednesday, October 23, at the Lamoille County VFW in Morrisville beginning at 6 p.m. and on Saturday, October 26, at the current Morristown Municipal Offices in the Tegu Building beginning at 9 a.m. The purpose of the two meetings is to gather community input and opinion on several possible choices that the Morristown Selectboard is considering as future sites for the town municipal offices and town hall. “The selectboard is really looking for information from residents on what options they would like the board to continue pursuing,” explained Morristown Town Administrator Dan Lindley via phone interview. According to Lindley the two meetings would likely consist of a brief presentation on each of the five options the board has considered and researched. The board has done research on the likely total costs and impact on taxpayers for each option, and that information would be part of the presentation. Following the presentations the floor would then be opened up for citizens’ input on the various options presented. The selectboard has researched and is considering a total of five options at this point, three of which involve purchasing existing buildings and two of which involve buying or using lots that are currently empty. One option is to keep the offices at the Tegu Building, purchasing the building from Louis Ferris Jr. The second option would be to purchase the empty building on Portland Street owned by Norm Nepveau, and the third would be to purchase the former Water-N-Woods building. The two other options being considered would be to purchase the empty lot on Hutchins Street owned by J.B. McKinley or to build the new offices on the empty lot owned by the town next to the Morristown Centennial Library. Lindley stated that he believes that each public input meeting will run between one and two hours depending on attendance. Following the meetings the board plans to consider the input of Morrisville’s residents before moving forward. According to Lindley the board is hoping to have a vote on whether or not to borrow the money for whatever option is chosen at a special town meeting sometime in early December.